L's Birthday
by Miko Akako
Summary: October 31 would cease to be anything more than just another day on the calendar. XX Spoilers for End of Series XX Near-centric XX L's 30th Birthday


**Title**: L's Birthday

**Author**: Mikoakako

**Rating**: G

**Pairings/Characters**: Near, L, implied MelloxMatt if you squint REALLY hard

**Warnings**: Slightly OOC Near

**Word Count**: 701

**A/N:** This was written for the dn_contest community on lj. I decided to post it here since today is L's birthday. So...happy 30, L. (:

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**L's Birthday**

"Happy birthday, L." The albino sat at the table alone, looking at the cake with thirty candles on it. Thirty candles made into the shape of the number. The cake was strawberry and chocolate – L's favorite. Once a year L would visit Wammy's. Once a year L would gather with his successors to prevent another suicide like A's or a total mental breakdown like B's. Once a year Near and Mello and Matt would be civil toward each other and eat a meal without shouting or throwing food.

Near remembered the first time he met L. It had been L's eighteenth birthday. Near was only six at the time, but he remembered the day clearly. He had been at Wammy's for just under a year at the time and had already earned the hatred of the blonde and his gamer friend. Near was excited to meet the man he already looked up to like his god. Eventually he would lose the blind faith he had in the detective, but when he was that young, he believed L to be infallible.

Near didn't know L's favorite food then; he didn't know what L would want for his birthday. So Near made a card. It was the simple kind of card a child would make, with a stick figure of what he thought L might look like smiling at another stick figure that looked something like Near himself. Inside it simply read 'Happy Birthday' in childish handwriting. He also gave L the handful of candies every child in Wammy's had been given for Halloween. Near didn't understand why anyone would celebrate anything so stupid, that's why October 31 was never 'Halloween' to him, it was just 'L's birthday.'

Near didn't have a card or candy this year. He had a cake. He had made it himself. Three other cakes, deemed inferior and unworthy of L's birthday lay in the trash. The masterpiece sitting on the table had taken hours. Once the taste was right, he had to decide on a shape. His first attempt was of an 'L' but that seemed wrong. Then he tried a circle, but he just didn't like the way it never ended – the frosting never looked even, he told himself. His final product was a square. A perfect 22x22 cm. The frosting was chocolate, and in the very center was a bouquet of strawberries. Various candies decorated the edges.

Near looked at his creation and would have smiled if it wasn't such a sad day. He looked at the cake – perfect – and at the candles arrangement - flawless. The candles were dripping wax on the cake, but Near didn't want to stop them. The candles themselves were almost burned down to the cake before Near started singing 'Happy Birthday' under his breath. Unlike all those years ago, there was no blonde boy to make fun of Near's commitment or a red-headed gamer to elbow the obnoxious leather wearing blonde when the jokes got mean. There wasn't even the raven haired detective glaring at his successors over the cake and waiting for them to stop fighting so he could celebrate his day of birth and leave to get back to whatever case had his full attention. Near was alone.

L had died five years ago. Mello and Matt were in Los Angeles conducting their own investigation of Kira. And Near was sitting alone in a cold, metal tower. His party was illuminated by computer screens reflecting a lonely 'N' a hundred times over. And somewhere in Japan, a man hiding behind the letter 'L' masqueraded as the man who had shaped Near to who he was today. As the candles burned out of a wick, Near finished his mournful song and turned back to the computer screens, leaving the cake sitting on the table in a silent offering to the past. Until L's name could finally be put to rest, he would continue celebrating. Somehow, Near knew this would be the last time he made a cake and sang to himself. Soon, L would truly be dead. And then Near could forget the childish day altogether and move on with his life. Soon L would not have another birthday.


End file.
